“Storm” made the American work to defend several takedowns in the
opening minutes of the five-round fight and then drove his opponent
into the cage, where he began feeding Marshall a steady diet of
knees to the body.

Finding success downstairs, Shlemenko stayed on the attack,
buckling “The Rhino” with a clubbing left hook to the ribs. Though
Marshall did his best to load up on one of his powerful right
hands, Shlemenko’s defense proved adequate as he ravenously pursued
the challenger and put him down with another nasty left hook to the
liver.

“I [worked very hard]. My favorite move is the liver shot. I am
champion,” Shlemenko said. “I am a striker, and so is Doug
Marshall. I just strike much harder than he does. I am a better
striker.”

Shlemenko will next defend his belt against Brennan
Ward, who earned his title shot by trumping Mikkel
Parlo two weeks ago in the Season 9 middleweight tournament
final.

Hawn Wins 170-pound Tourney, Secures 2014 Title Shot

Photo: K.
Mills/Sherdog.com

Hawn rallied and destroyed Keslar.

In the evening’s co-main event, Rick Hawn
became a two-time tournament winner by scoring a devastating
knockout victory over Ron
Keslar.

Though Hawn would eventually take control, he was forced to
overcome some early adversity when Keslar caught him with a clean
uppercut and then shoved him to the canvas in round one. The judo
Olympian worked his way back to his feet and began to set a pace
with his jab, carrying that momentum with him into round two, where
he continually touched Keslar with crisp lefts and rights.

Round three would then signal Keslar’s demise, as Hawn unloaded
with an unrelenting arsenal of punches that began with a short
right hand and a series of uppercuts. The judoka then pursued with
a powerful right cross and uppercut, followed by a vicious overhand
that finally floored the American Kickboxing Academy
representative. Hawn will now face Douglas
Lima for the promotion’s vacant welterweight title, formerly
held by current free agent Ben
Askren.

“He was kicking my ass the first round. It was do or die. He’s a
tough guy and a big dude, so I had to turn it up,” said Hawn. “He
took a few shots, and I thought he was going down. I kept chipping
away and finally got him. I was relieved.”

Brooks Takes Lightweight Tournament Final

Photo: K.
Mills/Sherdog.com

Brooks bloodied Sarnavskiy up over 15 minutes.

Will
Brooks used a superior wrestling game to earn himself a title
shot at the expense of Alexander
Sarnavskiy in the Season 9 lightweight tournament final.

Brooks looked sharp from the get-go, exchanging evenly with the
dangerous Russian early in round one, even as Sarnavskiy stuffed
his initial takedown attempts. Midway through the first frame,
however, Brooks dragged “Tiger” to the canvas, establishing a trend
that would bleed into the final 10 minutes of the contest.

Though Sarnavskiy looked comfortable with his boxing to begin round
two, the American quickly planted him with another takedown,
pinning his man against the fence and dropping measured
ground-and-pound before taking Sarnavskiy’s back and mounting him
to end the frame. Round three would prove even more dominant for
Brooks, who unloaded with a continual stream of hard shots before
once again taking Sarnavskiy’s back en route to a clear-cut
unanimous decision win.

“What did I tell you from the start? I’m going to be simple,
effective and devastating. I think I did that this entire
tournament,” said Brooks. “Michael
Chandler and Eddie
Alvarez can keep beating each other up and hold onto my belt.
I’m coming for it.”

Etim dominated the three-round lightweight affair from start to
finish, scoring takedowns throughout the contest and taking
Cenoble’s back for the majority of round one. Though the Englishman
could not advance to such a dominant position in the second stanza,
he once again found himself latched onto Cenoble’s back in round
three, locking up a body triangle and fishing for a rear-naked
choke.

While Etim could not find his squeeze, the decision proved
elementary, with all three cage-side judges favoring the Octagon
alum with scores of 30-27, 30-26 and 29-28.

Other Bouts

Photo: K.
Mills/Sherdog.com

Bannon made quick work of Abdullah.

Lightweight prospect Mike Bannon
ran through Ahsan
Abdullah to close out the Bellator 109 preliminary card,
grounding the nine-fight pro before putting him to sleep with an
arm-triangle choke in just 1:51. Earlier, former combat sambo world
champion Blagoi
Ivanov overcame a flash knockdown in his heavyweight clash with
Keith Bell to
secure a takedown and submit his foe with a rear-naked choke at the
3:59 mark. Just prior, Brazilian prospect Goiti
Yamauchi smashed Saul
Almeida at 2:04 of round one, flooring his opponent with a hard
combination and then pounded him out with right hands on the mat.
Former NCAA Division I champion Bubba
Jenkins then returned to his winning ways at the expense of
Ian
Rammel, whom Jenkins stopped at 2:38 of the third-round with an
explosion of punches on the floor . Earlier, surging lightweight
prospect Brent
Primus finished Brett Glass
with a first-round rear-naked choke at 3:20 and Lester
Caslow tapped out Jay Haas with a
guillotine at 2:44 in the third round of their featherweight duel.